Who Is Rush’s New Drummer Anika Nilles?

When Rush announced its Fifty Something tour, fans began to ask one very important question: who could sit behind the drum kit after Neil Peart? Peart, who died in 2020, was Rush’s longtime drummer and lyricist for many years and was extremely beloved by the band’s fans. Now, for Rush’s first tour since 2015, Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson are returning to the stage with German drummer Anika Nilles joining them for the shows. So, who is Anika Nilles, and how is she qualified to fill Peart’s shoes?

Rush’s official announcement describes her as a German drummer, composer, and producer who has performed as Jeff Beck‘s drummer for more than 60 shows and released four solo albums. Nilles grew up in West Germany, in a family with several drummers, and began playing drums at six. Her father helped teach her early on, and she later studied popular music at Popakademie Baden-Württemberg in Mannheim. Before pursuing music full-time, she also worked in social education.

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Nilles first built a major online following in the early 2010s, when her YouTube videos began spreading through the drumming community. Her early original compositions included “Wild Boy” in 2013 and “Alter Ego” in 2014, and her videos often featured her playing drums along with previously recorded original music. She released her debut full-length album, Pikalar, with her band Nevell in 2017. She followed it with For a Colorful Soul in 2020 and False Truth in 2025. Around the release of Pikalar, Nilles was also featured on the cover of Modern Drummer in June 2017, which helped introduce her to even more serious drum fans.

Nilles has also become known as an educator. She has taught through Nexus ICA, Drumeo and Popakademie Baden-Württemberg. Since 2021, she has been head of the drums department at Popakademie Baden-Württemberg, the same school where she studied. For many rock fans, her most recognizable pre-Rush credit was playing in Jeff Beck’s live band in 2022. That connection also helped lead to Rush. In a 2026 interview with Louder, Nilles said she was touring with Beck when Beck’s guitar tech, who was also Geddy Lee’s bass tech, helped connect her with Lee. She later went to Canada to play with Lee and Lifeson and see whether the new lineup could work.

Nilles has been open about the challenge of learning the Rush catalog. She said she knew Peart’s work as a drummer, especially “Tom Sawyer,” but had not grown up as a major Rush listener. Now, she is preparing a large group of songs for the tour, with Rush planning to vary the setlist during the run. Rush’s Fifty Something tour is scheduled to begin June 7, 2026, at the Kia Forum in Los Angeles. The shows are being billed as “an evening with” concerts, with the band playing two sets each night and building the setlists from a catalog of 35 songs.

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